John A. McDougall


John A. McDougall is an American physician and author who is the co-founder, chairman, and sole board member of San Francisco–based Dr. McDougall's Right Foods Inc. He has written a number of diet books advocating the consumption of low-fat, starchy food.

Early years education and career

McDougall is a graduate of Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine. He performed his internship at Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1972 and his medical residency at the University of Hawaii.
McDougall is on the advisory board of Naked Food Magazine, for which he is also a regular contributor of articles espousing a plant-based diet.

Diet programs and products

In 2002, McDougall began the McDougall Program at the Flamingo Resort in Santa Rosa, California. The McDougall Program is a 10-day residential treatment program based in Santa Rosa, California, which features a low-fat, starch-based diet.
McDougall is the co-founder, chairman, and sole board member of San Francisco based Dr. McDougall's Right Foods Inc., which produces dried and packaged soups, manufactured for it by the SF Spice Co. He is also a member of the advisory board of the animal-activist group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine In 2016, McDougall was one of four named plaintiffs in a lawsuit by the PCRM alleging improper industry influence on establishing cholesterol recommendations.
McDougall opposes conventional cancer treatment. He has promoted his diet as an alternative treatment for a number of chronic disorders, including arthritis, atherosclerosis, cancer, diabetes, hypertension and osteoporosis. The McDougall diet is low in fat, high in fiber and contains no cholesterol. The diet is based on a variety of starches such as rice, potatoes, corn, breads, pasta and fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables.

Reception

There is no scientific evidence that McDougall's diet is effective.
His eponymous 1983 diet book, The McDougall Plan, has been described as a fad diet by medical experts, with possible disadvantages including a boring food choice, flatulence, and the risk of feeling hungry. Reviewing McDougall's book, The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss, nutritionist Fredrick J. Stare and epidemiologist Elizabeth Whelan criticized its restrictive regime and "poor advice", concluding that the diet's concepts were "extreme and out of keeping with nutritional reality".
Nutritionist Kurt Butler has criticized McDougall for making extremist diet recommendations. He noted that McDougall does back up his claims with studies from medical journals but his interpretations are often at odds with the authors of the studies he cites. Butler commented that "McDougall's followers risk deficiencies in protein, phosphorus, calcium, iron, zinc, vitamin B₁₂ and perhaps other nutrients. Children on the diet are especially at risk for calorie deficiency, which can have disastrous consequences."
McDougall's suggestions that dairy products cause leukemia and multiple sclerosis, is not supported by scientific evidence.